


The Codex Of Caedmon

by Altonym



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Am I ever going to write a fic with tags that people have used before, Gen, Political Alliances, Political Marriage, lavender marriage, mutual beards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:15:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8145388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altonym/pseuds/Altonym
Summary: Two political creatures are exponentially more effective than one.





	

 

> While the historical tendency of Ferelden has always been hostility towards absolute monarchy in the Orlesian tradition, the development of formal constitutional diarchy has its roots in the Reconstruction period following the Fifth Blight. Across Thedas as a whole, the Fifth Blight is seen as a minor political development in a period full of upheaval (not least the Inquisition Crisis and Civil War Period, which devastated Orlais and led indirectly to the Andrastian Reformation), but in Ferelden the Fifth Blight was fundamental to the development of a political system which could withstand both disaster and internal unrest.  
>    
>  As the Mac Tir Regency showed, Ferelden's decentralised and largely uncodified pre-Blight political system was vulnerable to the assertion of pure power - the strongman's government, typified by the autocratic style of the regency. This, of course, reflects Ferelden's initial formation as a loosely unified tribal state, and its later subjugation by Orlais; Ferelden was used to a political principle of right-by-might. The formal codification of a centralised political system was the first and paramount goal of the Cousland-Mac Tir political alliance. The mess of titles and ranks typified by the pre-Blight political system were not fit for a functioning government, and made rebellion a practical inevitability.  
>    
>  Thus, the Note of Oakcross should not be seen merely as the stopgap measure of a precarious government hoping to affirm its legitimacy; it is an initial attempt to give Ferelden a formal political structure, the first constitution of Ferelden. While Oakcross' significance is invoked primarily in its handing of formal political power to both Fereldan Dalish (who received political recognition on par with an arldom of their own), and its establishment of strict consociational representation for alienages, it is arguably just as significant in its reorganisation of banns and arldoms, and its abolition of the rank of teyrn (always a key focal point for any challenge to the throne).  
>    
>  Additionally, Oakcross contains the first inklings of formal codification of Fereldan diarchy - note that Oakcross invokes the authority of the Prince-Consort and Queen as 'co-operating, mutually sovereign rulers of Ferelden'. Anora and Caedmon are asserting that they are both rulers - co-sovereigns, who are both empowered to make laws on behalf of the nation. This formal declaration of the legal power of Caedmon as consort is a direct forerunner to the declaration of codified diarchy in 10:31 Tidal by Queens Rhiannon II and Eleanor.  
>    
>  There is no separating the marital element of diarchy from its political function. Genitivus Harlon Rothe argues in The Two Hounds that the political marriage which forms the central element to Fereldan diarchy is, intended or no, a way of securing broad-base political consensus. As we have seen with the rules of Cailan II/Anwen I, Anwen II/Edwin, and Faolan/Winona, diarchy provides a method of reconciling opposing political factions in a single coalition-minded rulership, without falling into the messy, democratic chaos of Orzammar-style succession and government. Though modern Fereldan diarchs do not maintain the illusion of personal marriage as earlier diarchs did, the formal union of familial power is an important ritual element to Fereldan diarchy, which helps prevent diarchs from acting in opposition from one another - their claims, titles and inheritances are shared, and so thus is their fate.  
>    
>  The combination of diarchy and the formal powers of the Fereldan landsmeet are, I believe, the foundation of Ferelden's unprecedented political stability during the last century. It is one of the very few states in Thedas not to have wasted a decade or more on leadership battles. Where the United Free Marches continually squabble over the position of High Monarch, where Orlais is mired in repeated succession crises, where Tevinter engulfs itself in constant senatorial infighting, the formal balance between diarchy and landsmeet has provided a pressure valve, and allowed Ferelden to take its place as a serious maritime power in Thedas.

  
**High-Genitiva Diana Pinnock, Sea Dogs, 11:34 Tidal**

 

 

 

> The vogue in recent years has been to characterise the working relationship between Anora and her Prince-Consort as being in some way antagonistic or terse. The primary evidence cited for this is correspondence of contemporary nobility, particularly the close-knit informal web of confidences surrounding the Arlessa of Varveld which would come to be dubbed the 'Bedroom Cabinet'. Arlessa Niamh Cavanagh of Whitewood, in a 9:32 letter to her daughter, waspishly describes 'a frosty woman, frozen yet further by the desolation of the marriage bed', while Bann Terence Guinn was formally reprimanded in 9:34 for describing the King as 'the most powerful cuckold in Thedas', during an active Landsmeet of all places.  
>    
>  The ambassador Georges Abeyard, who was first to officially visit Ferelden after formal relations with Orlais were restored, describes the Queen as 'the true ruler' and the King as 'practically mute' in his account of his first formal audience. Likewise, the Marcher ambassador Noel Harcourt describes the Fereldan court as 'wintry, if mercifully efficient'. Our commentators all agree - there is little warmth in the public display of the Queen and Prince-Consort.  
>    
>  Following Caedmon's marriage alliance with Anora, his partnership with the Guerrin family soured, particularly after the Note of Oakcross increased the number of Banns and reduced the relative political weight of Redcliffe's seat within the now-regular Landsmeets. Letters written between Eamon in Denerim and his brother back in Redcliffe at turns describe the Queen as 'megalomaniacal', 'paranoid', 'dismissive' and 'cagey', while Caedmon is 'mournful', 'distant', 'unassertive' and 'unkingly'.  
>    
>  Tempting as it is to draw broad strokes about the first diarchy from these correspondences, they do not tally with the royal records we have remaining, including diaries - in style more like impersonal notebooks - kept by the Queen between 9:28 and 9:35. These give us a vivid (if clearly awkwardly abridged) insight into the Queen's thinking. Take the following passage, an account of closed meetings in the immediate wake of the Blight, about three or four weeks after the slaying of the Archdemon:  
>    
>  _'C is wary re: image of the wardens, I am inclined to agree. No need to raise spectre of dryden. obviously public mood is in favour of the order, so vigil's keep funding won't be controversial. laws, claims, speeches in my name, my voice.'_  
>    
>  This is not a picture of an aggressively confrontational working relationship, but an agreed partnership. A few months later we have this:  
>    
>  _'spoke to C re: H(*)'s idea that we play up our political differences. rural banns like C, no harm to make them feel like they have a voice fighting their corner. breadbasket banns are top priority, followed by minerals. never been happier that redcliffe isn't sitting on silver.'_  
>    
>  Though we have little direct correspondence remaining of Caedmon's, we have absolutely no evidence to suggest that the diarchy was ever unable to act as one due to infighting. The level of legislative unity achieved by Anora's government was no less than unprecedented in Ferelden. Anti-Anoran commentators are quick to forget that pre-Blight Ferelden was so decentralised that freeholders frequently fought full conflicts with one another over land, with successful land wars then formally recognised after the fact by a regional landsmeet. The idea of this would have been unthinkable after twenty years of Oakcross' formal land arbitration processes. The legitimacy of the government in Denerim grew tenfold during Anora's reign, to the point of ironically making an insurrection of the type which brought Anora to power significantly more difficult.  
>    
>  Had Caedmon been a significant political obstacle, Anora's government would not have been able to withstand the enormous inertial pressure resisting this legislative reform. Only the sheer devastation of the Blight, the united face of Anora's government in Denerim, and the reticence to go to formal war prevented significant civil unrest during the reform process. Though a significant core of opposition to Anora's government swirled continually around Redcliffe, this never materialised into armed action, and was certainly never linked to Caedmon in any way.

  
**Angela Leavendon, The Daughter Mac Tir, 10:61 Thunder**

 

 

 

> In the process of restoration, the fortress became ever more bound with the Drydens as a family. In 9:31 Dragon, even as reconstruction continued, the Drydens were officially invested with 'duty of stewardship' towards the tower. This was essentially a guarantee of permanent employment, as much legal right of residence as they could have without gifting the fort to them entirely. Land ownership of Soldier's Peak was gifted to the Fereldan Wardens and thus also the Warden-Commander. Despite the Peak's entwinement with the sitting diarchy, it passed without incident into the possession of Warden-Commander Hughes upon Caedmon's death, and has retained independence to date.  
>    
>  Caedmon's lasting legacy to Ferelden was infrastructural - while Anora presented Ferelden's foreign face as intelligent, bold, and decisive, Caedmon focused on the duty of the Warden. This was healing the damage of the Blight. The Blight left farmland which would not recover for over a decade, as well as massive depopulation in southern Ferelden. Repopulation programmes which offered essentially free land to city-dwellers (notably, elves, whose property rights had been flimsily enforced where they previously existed) went a long way towards recultivating and restoring poisoned or even just dilapidated territory.  
>    
>  Maintenance on the imperial highways was accompanied by a programme of fort-building, both as a form of defence against future Blights and for general security. These projects acted as an economic stimulus in otherwise impoverished areas of Ferelden. In addition to Soldier's Peak and the arling of Amaranthine, the Fereldan Wardens were granted land at Oakcross in the Brecilian forest and Antagar on the border of the Korcari wilds. These would both be developed into holdfasts and eventually castles over the next sixty years.  
>    
>  Caedmon's priority was not simply to invest the Wardens with cash or property, but to make sure the Wardens had independent sources of income; this included full rights to the imperial toll-road passing through the the Peak's territory, as well as a cut of Amaranthine tax take and exclusive rights to proceeds from any mineral resources found within the land grant around the Peak. The wide variety of holdings throughout Ferelden, particularly military stongpoints, gave the Wardens a source of temporal power independent of the Crown, and meant that they were theoretically no longer at the mercy of Kings or Queens.

  
**Warden-Archivist Paula Yeates, Soldier's Peak: A History, 10:92 Thunder**

 

 

 

> Succession hung as an awkward question over Anora's reign for almost two decades, the unspoken political debate nobody was willing to have. Anora had been ruthless in her sweeping aside of challengers, particularly those who raised the spectre of the bastard Prince Alistair. Rumours of his return became folk-murmurings among those, particularly in the West, who disliked Anora's reform attempts as a stain on Fereldan honour; the 'changing of wolflords into bureaucrats', as Arlessa Miriam Haker put it.  
>    
>  There were several options presented as possibilities for inheritance, including a special landsmeet to elect a new ruler, but Anora was unwilling to countenance the chaos that would erupt once people realised that the throne was up for grabs, particularly if her life was the only thing between several factions and their desired election. The possibility of adopting a child was raised, but one could not adopt a foreigner, and adoption from any of the noble houses of Ferelden would be a clear sign of favouritism. This was all besides the influence that could be exerted over the potential heir by whichever family provided them.  
>    
>  In the end, it was through Caedmon's line that succession was drawn. His brother, Fergus, had remarried after the Blight and had three viable heirs. The eldest daughter Catriona had already begun to be groomed for rule, thoughtful much like her uncle. It was to her that Anora officially established succession in 9:48. Catriona was married in 9:54 to Seamus Guerrin, scion of the pro-Alistair holdouts in the Landsmeet. This detente led to the relative consensus of the second half of Anora's reign, and to Ferelden's second formal diarchy.

  
**Imelda Cartwright, Monarchs and Diarchs of Ferelden: Fourth Edition, 10:78 Thunder**

 

 

 

> Maker forgive me for what I have done.  
>    
>  Father may be cursing me from his grave - this is something I accepted when I first approached Anora, but it is nonetheless a hard thing to accept. I know that neither he nor Fergus could have done what I have - I don't know if that's a failing or not. I know you would have understood - you would have fixed me with a steely eye and required nothing else. In this as in so much, I am more your child than his.  
>    
>  I will not speak with Loghain until the morning - I'm not sure what I would say to him. It is still strange, that men such as he listen when I speak. I can still see him facing me in the duelling circle, so sure of himself, like Fergus used to be. Fereldan manhood, Fereldan swagger, the arrogance of the swordsman. It only takes a few strikes, honourless strikes, to incapacitate a swordsman. It's men like him who free nations, but men like him are incapable of ruling them.  
>    
>  Anora understands this, as you did, and it's why we're the ones left standing.  
>    
>  In truth, I have won a brutal, very Fereldan victory. Howe is dead. Loghain obeys my command. I believe him when he says he will lead the Wardens as I see fit. He even obeys me in this perverse magic I have cajoled him into, obeys so immediately that it troubles me. I refuse to throw away a perfectly good resource, one of the greatest living generals in Thedas, if there is another option. I refuse to do that, and my intellect tells me this is right, correct, intelligent. I don't know if I am comfortable yet, in viewing people as resources, but it is why my army will march tomorrow with mighty golems as a vanguard, with every fighting force of any worth in Ferelden. This Blight has not been about my comfort, about any of our comfort, certainly not Loghain's comfort. If this magic can preserve Loghain's skill for the good of our Order, then I will walk away vindicated.  
>    
>  He was so surprised, to see my own blood on that single arrow, to see this odd power of mine conquering him. It felt good to surprise him, it felt right. It wasn't about justice, in the end. It has been weeks since I felt unsure about anything. There is no compromise in a Blight, and Alistair never understood that. I miss his presence, but I don't regret anything I've done. I am the one who led this rebellion, and I refuse to watch it wither into senseless honour and Fereldan fucking manhood. What I've done was right, correct, intelligent.  
>    
>  Easy to write down, harder to reconcile. I wonder if Anora was right - if he should've died to secure our place on the throne. Give him the martyr's death every Fereldan soldier seems to be desperate for. Maybe he will lead some fool's insurrection and make me kill him. I would win, without hesitation. I have the moral high ground.  
>    
>  Tomorrow I will take up your bow and kill an archdemon. Each day, I find myself sharpening, becoming more the Warden and less the man. There is no room for doubt. You used to tell me that an arrow isn't subtle. You aim it, release it, and it kills. I am that arrow now, pointed directly at the dragon head, and there is nothing else about me. Who I will be after the dragon is dead, I'm less sure. Somehow I think Flemeth could tell me.  
>    
>  I miss you. Howe died in pain, spitting blood.

  
**Caedmon I Cousland, Letter Found Among Private Effects Of The Denerim Royal Vault, est. 9:30 Dragon.**


End file.
